


Lean on Me (When You Need an Arm)

by InTheShadows



Series: WinterIron Week 2020 Fills [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Is a Good Bro, Comic book elements, Don't copy to another site, Extremis Tony Stark, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Headaches & Migraines, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Platonic Cuddling, Tony Stark & Bucky Barnes Bond, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, WinterIron Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:35:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28097025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InTheShadows/pseuds/InTheShadows
Summary: The first time it happens Tony is both embarrassed and frustrated. Of all the weird side effects to have, does extremis have to make him fixate on Bucky's arm? Really? It's not even as if they're that close to laugh it off. When he flees he vows that it won't happen again.Easier said then done.Once is chance, twice is a coincidence, the third time is a pattern, after all. (They reach before three pretty quickly.)Companion fic toWhen You Need an Arm (Lean on Me).
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Tony Stark
Series: WinterIron Week 2020 Fills [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2066133
Comments: 3
Kudos: 150
Collections: WinterIron Week





	Lean on Me (When You Need an Arm)

**Author's Note:**

> For WinterIron Week, Day 1, Extremis Tony. This one is more comic book extremis (Because I still have more than one story for today. No I couldn't decide.)  
> Yes I am a savage with titles. Who allowed me this power?  
> The companion story exists in the same story, technically, but it isn't necessary to read both of them if you don't want to.

Tony is used to being the human member of the team. The civilian. The most vulnerable one. The seemingly weak link in the chain. How can he not be? He doesn’t have any enhancements, he isn’t a deity from another planet, he has no invulnerable alter ego to defend him nor is he a super secret agent with mad super secret agent skills. He’s just - Tony. Or as just as Tony can be since he’s Tony goddamn Stark. 

Most of the time it doesn’t bother him. So what if he doesn’t have any powers, he doesn’t need them. He’s a genius. He is Iron Man. He’s a futurist. Who needs powers when he can build what he needs with his own two hands? Who says genius can’t be a power of its own? 

Sure, sometimes it’s annoying, being so underestimated, but most of the time it’s pretty useful. He’s gotten out of more than one disaster - both on and off the battlefield - because of it. And if the others - mainly Clint - think they can tease him about it, they have another thing coming to them. Besides, Clint has no room to talk. When he’s not being a super agent with mad skills, he’s a walking disaster. Tony is pretty sure he can even be worse than Tony himself, which is saying something. The jerk. 

That doesn’t mean that sometimes he doesn't wish differently. Doesn’t wish he could be seen as an equal. To be on solid ground with the others. There are days when the jokes aren’t funny. Days when his laugh is forced and his smile is his best media smile. Days when he wishes things were  _ different _ . He’s only human after all. 

This however - this is not how he wanted it to happen. This is - no. 

Deliberately Tony steps away from the now shattered coffee mug. It is with a blank expression that he watches his sweeper bot clean up the mess. Deliberately he does not flinch at it. His hands curl into fists to keep them away from his head. Rubbing at it won’t work. It never does. This is something far different than a normal migraine. 

Suddenly exhausted he turns and leaves the room. Forget the coffee. Forget the meal he came up to get. Technically speaking he doesn’t need it anyways. Thanking whatever deity that is listening that the kitchen was empty, he flees to the workshop. 

Once there he goes over and collapses onto the couch. He is too exhausted right now to even pretend. The electronics in the room offer itself as white noise, both soothing and aggravating at the same time. He buries his face in the cushions, hoping for relief. Of course it doesn’t come. 

It happened again. Lovelace and Tesla damn it all, it happened  _ again _ . 

Shouldn’t he be over this already? It’s been three weeks. Three whole weeks. He’s a genius, he’s a quick study and he’s an even quicker inventor. He learned thermonuclear astrophysics in a day for god's sake. He’s been coding since before he could speak. He should be able to control this by now. 

He winces as he hears Dum-E and Butterfingers talking. JARVIS tells them to leave Tony alone, but neither of them listen. As always. Soon he is crowded by all three of his bots, all wanting to help. His head gives another vicious throb as he reassures them that all he needs is to recharge some. Butterfingers and U listen, leaving him be. Dum-E does not. He insists on keeping guard. Just in case. Tony doesn’t have the energy to argue. 

The noise washes over him again. He never realized how noisy it could be in here, without a word being said. How much his bots talk to one another. Just how much all the electronics communicate with everything around them. Code is truly it’s own language and Tony is hearing it as it is truly spoken for the first time ever. It’s fascinating. Most of the time Tony loves it. Tech has always been his closest companion. Now he understands it like never before. Is practically one with it. That’s what happens, after all, when one's brain gets turned into a computer. 

Extremis is both a curse and a blessing. He wouldn’t be alive without it. Of course he wouldn’t have been dying either, if he hadn’t been kidnapped and beaten almost to death. Extremis had been his only chance. Even that should have killed him - the survival rate is hardly pretty. But, against all odds, it didn’t. 

Instead it changed him. Rewrote his DNA. Made him faster, stronger and a technopath for all intents and purposes. A living, breathing computer. Tony’s genius is likely what saved him. That and some good old fashion Tony Stark luck. And just like his luck, it is a double edged sword. One that has been cutting him since it happened. 

His brain may be a computer now, but it is still made up of gray matter, not circuits. It wasn’t designed to do what it is now able to. Genius though he may be, even he has his limits. Right now that would be the entirety of the internet. It is far too easy to get lost, to get overwhelmed. If he isn’t careful he could quite literally lose his mind to this. 

When it happens he loses all awareness of his surroundings. His body becomes completely unresponsive while his mind goes to places that it cannot follow. It isn’t pretty. In fact, as Clint so lovingly put it, it’s creepy as hell. Thank you so much Hawkbutt. 

After the first time he tries his best not to let any of the others see it. They all mean well, but the awkward hovering is the exact opposite of helpful. Being treated with kids gloves is never the best way to treat Tony. Ever.  _ Ever _ . It’s on his top five most hated things. He doesn’t need the pity. 

Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it. 

Frankly Tony would like a refund. It’s not as if he’s any more helpful either. He’s been grounded from the armour since this whole disaster started. If he blanks out in the middle of a battle then he is in real trouble. It makes sense and he even agrees with it, but that doesn’t mean he hates it any less. 

The suit responds to him like a dream. Like a second skin, an extension of himself, another limb. It’s more than he could ever imagine. The suit and he may have been one before, but now it is true like nothing else. A true merging of man and machine. 

There is a cost to it, however. The migraines are the worst of it. Tony’s head has basically been aching since the very first time he connected to the technological world. It eases and flares, but it has yet to go away entirely. It will eventually. Bruce is sure about that once Tony talked to him - in not so complete details - about it. 

It is just like any other muscle, it needs time to become strong before it is no longer sore. His body is still adjusting. The changes are technically done, but there is still an adjustment period. A trial period, if you will. Tony will eventually be fine, will have full control and use over this new power. But until he does, his body is going to go through hell. 

The door to the workshop opens and Dum-E gives an excited greeting that is both verbal and non. Even without that Tony would know who it is. The familiar sound of gears gives his identity away in an instant. 

Bucky doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t need to. By now he knows the signs - it’s not as if they are exactly subtle after all. He joins Tony on the couch, rearranging them so that he is on top of Bucky. His head is directed gently to his metal arm. 

Tony gives a sigh of relief at the cool touch. Oh that’s good. That is better than any ice pack for now. His body goes boneless. Nope. No moving. Moving is now forbidden. The pain in his head decreases to a dull thud. Perfect - or as perfect as he is going to get right now. 

For some reason none of them have been able to figure out, Bucky’s arm never sets him off. It does the opposite in fact. Turns out that listening to it, focusing on it and only it, relaxes Tony like nothing else did. His arm was the equivalent to a teddy bear, only better. 

They first found out when Bucky had walked into the room in the middle of one of Tony’s - episodes. According to the team Tony went from dead to the world to zeroing in on the arm in .002 seconds flat. It took about that long for him to attach himself to it. Everyone is terribly lucky that Bucky went with it or things could have gotten very ugly very fast. 

All Tony knew it that he came to with his face smooshed into the - by then - warm metal. He had fled the scene soon after to deal with the embarrassment and pain then. The problem was that it kept happening. It didn’t even have to be during an episode either. As soon as Tony was not fully focused and fully in control he somehow, inevitably, ended up attached to Bucky. 

One time is chance, two is a coincidence, three times is a pattern. 

By the third time Tony had - mostly - accepted the inevitable. Until this was all over he was going to end up close and personal with Bucky than either of them expected. 

Clearly the whole ‘staying away from others when he is lost in cyberspace’ is going  _ so _ well. 

Not. 

It is - awkward. 

Not to say that they weren’t friends before all of this. Although friends may be stretching it a bit too much. Better to say that they were  _ friendly _ . When Bucky had first come to the Tower, he had naturally needed time to recover. So there had been some flirting, some repair work, some jokes and nicknames, but Bucky had mostly kept to himself and Steve. 

He’s much better now, but the team is still getting to know him. Before this he and Tony were nowhere near ready for this level of connection. Tell that to his hindbrain though. It doesn’t care. It attaches itself to the arm, leaving Tony to deal with the rest of the human attached to it. 

By now they have a pretty good system down. Three weeks may not seem like a long time, but in this circumstance, it is. Three weeks of clinging will also bring about a new level of intimacy and bonding too. Ugh. Emotions. Tony will avoid those as long as possible now. And hey, he’s practically a machine now, so that should be pretty long. He pointedly ignores the fact that his AIs are  _ very _ emotional machines. 

Bucky rests his other hand on the small of his back, still not saying anything. 

Tony soaks in the silence that isn’t really silence at all. 

“JARVIS ordered soup for whenever you’re ready, sweet thing.” 

Yeah, the flirting has only gotten worse. Some may say it’s only a matter of time before it reaches its inevitable conclusion, but Tony isn’t so sure about that yet. He of all people should know that there is a difference between flirting and  _ flirting _ . 

He huffs in disgust. Food. Yuck. That has been another interesting battle since this all started. Sometimes he can eat like a normal human being and sometimes his stomach hates him. Then again, is he technically human anymore? Jury is still out on that one. There are days when he definitely doesn’t feel like one. 

“It’s your favorite,” he adds. 

Oh the things one learns about someone when said someone can’t leave their arm alone. His stomach gives an uncertain rumble. “Five more minutes,” he whines, words slurring into the metal. 

Bucky traces aimless patterns into his skin. “For you darling? I’ll make it ten.” 

“Knew you were my favorite for a reason,” Tony murmurs, more than half asleep. 

Bucky’s laugh tickles his ear, but he doesn’t otherwise move. “And here I thought you only liked me for my arm.” 

“Rest a’ ya’s nice too.” 

“Too kind there doll. Fella could get a real big head listening to you.”

Tony hums in agreement, but doesn’t say anything else. The exhaustion has finally caught up with his. Now with the pain mostly gone he can’t keep his eyes open anymore. Lulled to the sound of gears and circuits and steady breathing, he falls asleep. 


End file.
